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melissa: good afternoon. i am melissa francis. lori: tgif. i am lori rothman. [talking over each other] melissa: that is okay. it is friday. one of the largest power generators and distributors in the country on why he is reluctant to rush into cheap natural gas. that is a good one. lori: indeed. one of the largest asset companies. they join us and tell us what they see as a growing threat. our apple ipods and iphones allowed in christopher donahue's house? we will see.

lori: time for stocks now as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides is standing by. nicole: it is not easy to keep the kids off their iphones and ipods. not too far off from the 14,000 mark. procter and gamble up. their new 52 week high. these are the names that you think of. when you think energy, 52 week hi there. they did see a decline of 26% in the fourth quarter. they also expected a 2013 rig count to be down slightly. honeywell, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, on the move. it is up 18%. there is a look at honeywell right now.

up fractionally right now. kimberly-clark, another name on the move after their quarterly reports. back to you. melissa: thank you so much. lori: eight straight days of gains. the last time that happened was back in november 2004. is the market due for a pullback or is there even more room to run? kevin, welcome back to the show. when they are talking about the stock market in my hair salon, it makes you think that this puppy has some room to run. what do you think? >> i think that is exactly right. i think we have improving fundamentals. at the same time, when you look at stocks, they are relatively cheap. you look at bond yields.

they are very low. investors are looking at all this and putting it all together and moving into equities. particularly, since the risks about the fiscal cliff seem a little more remote, why not go into equities. especially when there is not a lot of compelling alternatives out there. lori: one argument would be that this is all the benefit created by the wealth effect. what else is driving the market. give me more of a bullish case here. >> i think you are right. a lot of it was looking backwards to 2009. a lot of it was coming out of the very deep recession. the economy was in big trouble. the stock market was extremely depressed. we spent $5 trillion to get the economy recovered. profits have come back.

the stock market has moved along with it. i think, now, we have to have this handoff where you need to see more private investment. we are seeing it in the housing data, auto data. lori: you say that you are confident in the overall market. there is not a lot of -- what if you are advised to investors if they are just getting in now? >> i am, you know, it is curious to me if i look at some of the best names out there. if you look at apple today, for example. you are looking at a very low trade. apple is not the only one. there are plenty of companies out there that have sustainable earnings that can grow. at this point, since you have

this big recovery in profits, maybe you want to look at companies that can sustain this position. lori: would you take more risks? >> i do not think you have to take a lot of data. one of the things you have to recognize is you have some very strong weeks. investors report back into the market. it is only a very short period of time. i think you look out in the next few years and you keep getting an eight or 9% of return. lori: real quickly, would you expect the dow to retrace its all-time highs, if at all? >> sometime later in the second half of this year. lori: thank you so much. great to see you. melissa: president obama said to run the securities exchange

commission. fox business sr. correspondent charlie gasparino, what do you think? gerri: she was the u.s. attorney for the southern district. rudy giuliani had it before mary jo white. this is a place where a lot of the big financial crimes are busted. terrorism, it is all here in the southern district of new york. she ran it. when i talk to lawyers, people that care about the securities exchange commission has to do, they think she is pretty unqualified. if we think about the enforcement of the sec, there is a prosecutor. perfect place for a prosecutor.

you are actually going after people. the problem with someone at the top is that she care about market structure? does she care why nine securities blew up and hurt investor confidence? no. this is a signal to wall street to expect much more pain from the sec. expect much more aggressive enforcement. they are afraid that facebook about facebook ice -- facebook ipo. melissa: people are in the market. charlie: pension funds have money to invest. they cannot just sit on it. the sec is basically put on

earth to make sure that markets are therefore the average investors. the average guy gets a fair share. more enforcement actions. i would just like to know, when are we going to get someone at the top that is really worried about how screwed up the markets are. lori: i am just saying that it is conventional wisdom at this point. that is common knowledge. charlie: i bought a diamond once. i know a little bit about jewelry. [ laughter ] charlie: i have news for you, it is not at the top of my agenda when i wake up every morning. this is someone who has prioritized something, has certain parties and president obama wants it that way. i will tell you, there are huge

regulatory monsters lurking in this market that keep people -- think about it this way, the course of the year we had night securities and the facebook debacle. there is clearly something wrong with the structure of the markets. in three years, throw a flash crush on top of that. really nasty stuff that is not being addressed. you have to ask, why did you screw up? why did you send trades? by the way, that wiped out the capital. it wiped out a bought of wealth in one day. that is a scary thing. melissa: charlie gasparino, thank you very much. lori: what is black and pink and red all over?

exclusive details ahead. melissa: does microsoft founder bill gates allow his family to have iphones and ipods in the house? was claimant has that ahead. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work. and his new boss told him twongs -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, nd he'll set money aside from his first day of work

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melissa: it is time to head back to davos and liz claman. she had a chance to sit down with bill gates. she asked him if he was satisfied with the sales of windows eight. >> it is a window for the future. it is off to quite a good start. you know, making sure they have the best applications, more

applications and they are on a really good trajectory. liz: they are on a lot of altered books are ready. you said you are using a samsung galaxy. >> microsoft has the surface which is quite nice. it gives you the benefit of a tablet, but it also gives you the benefit of a pc because without a keyboard. it gives you the best of both worlds. liz: your wife that she is not letting your kids use apple products. >> well, they never ask. [ laughter ] >> it would be interesting if they did ask. they love their windows phones and windows pcs. lori: come on.

[talking over each other] dennis: you are not included in the conversation. melissa: you have to love liz claman for asking that. keep it right here on fox business as liz claman talks to -- at 3:00 p.m. eastern. lori: i think they are hiding him under the bed. [ laughter ] lori: as we do every 15 minutes, nicole petallides on the new york stock exchange. nicole: obviously, this is all related to what they do as a business. the stock, which was initially looking like it would be priced 18-$22. about it right now. a whopping gain of over 30%.

it was established back in 1986. we should note that this is a bain capital company. this initial public offering certainly is going extremely well here today. we have the ceo earlier today. he had a nice interview with stuart varney. certainly a good day for bright horizons. melissa: wow. lori: that is good. was that the hit where you have that cute backpack this morning? nicole: oh, you like that pusher melissa: we will ask american electric power ceo why he is worried about getting burned. he joins us exclusively next. lori: you better crank up that heat. a smelly bath headed east.

the forecast is ahead. melissa: take a book and how the dollar is heading. we will be right back. ♪

>> 20 minutes past the hour, i have your fox news and it. in cairo, police clash with protesters. pro-democracy protest led to the resignation of the then president in 2011. a federal appeals court has ruled that president obama violated the constitution when he bypassed the senate. the u.s. court of appeals for the d.c. circuit ruling that the president did not have the power since the senate was not in recess of january last year. the president is claiming that he acted properly since the senate was away for the holidays. the department of education telling school districts that

they must provide sports for disabled students. much like title ix expanded sports opportunities for girls. those are your news headlines. now, back to lori and melissa. lori: rick, thank you so much. bitter cold temperatures and high wind leaves many people shivering. >> though cold is here for about two to three more days. we are already on day six of this cold. we have not gotten above freezing for about two weeks. a little bit of snow moving to hear. it is not heavy snow, though. maybe one-2 inches. the biggest snowfall will be across the central appellations. the biggest concern, though, will be for some freezing rain. when the ground is called, it is

already frozen. freezing rain warnings across parts of kentucky and eastern tennessee. we may see about a half an inch of ice. that could cause some power outages and treacherous conditions on the road. moving forward to the next couple of hours. we will see some of that icing moving through parts of carolina. it will move through new jersey and new york city. temperatures behind the storm, though, remain cold. it is cold right now. 8 degrees in boston. for in buffalo. temperatures will warm slowly this weekend. everybody about 5 degrees warmer. that 5 degrees will feel really good, lori. lori: thank you, as always.

melissa: those cool temperatures helping to drive natural gas prices to a six-week high. it is the wild price swings that has utility ceos worried. the ceo of american electric power, nick akins, thank you so much for joining us. you have been quoted in a lot of articles recently talking about how this makes you a little bit nervous. is this one of the reasons? >> i think it is one of the reasons, melissa. great to be with you this afternoon. we are running into the time of year where natural gas prices are coming up and that shows the volatility of natural gas and the deliverability associated with infrastructure. it has been beneficial to customers. melissa: you have a dog in this fight, of course. 66% of the electricity that you generate comes from coal.

do you have a big investment in coal? is that one of the reasons you are an advocate for diversity? >> i think it is more of a risk that needs to occur because clearly we have more volatility with natural gas. as prices go up, we sell natural gas in the first three quarters go up by 40% on our system alone. if you look at what has happened to natural gas in the later part of the year, cole has reentered the picture. it is good to be in that area where you have that balance where you can go back and forth and reduce the price. melissa: i follow this industry for a long time. a lot of people say, and it does seem like there is a new job in natural gas because of the change in technology.

because of the fracking resolution, we really have recovered an incredible supply of natural gas. you do not buy that? >> no. i think there has been a structural change. it has clearly been a positive for our customers. the question is, and too much of a good thing ultimately hurt you? it illuminates everything in the portfolio. you will wind up in a situation where you are totally dependent on natural gas and you've run into those same situations that you run into during the mid- 2000. we need to keep that balance and maintain it. melissa: we were just looking over the past ten years how our usage has shifted. we get 37% from coal. do you worry that the epa is unleashing a war on cold right

now and what makes you feel that way? >> i think it is troubling that the epa needs to really take a look at what it is doing relative to the energy mix in this country. particularly, we will have retirement of older coal-fired units occurring in the 2015-2016 years. particularly, if there is greenhouse gas issues, that could have a very dramatic impact on the resource mix of this country. we really need to be taking this process out and making sure that the technology badges that implementation of these kinds of activities. melissa: you are only the sixth and you certainly know of what you speak. nick akins, thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you, melissa.

lori: founding a warning on the new threat to its business. john donohue joins us next. melissa: the trouble that is posing on facebook. ♪

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melissa: time for stokes as we do every 15 minutes. let's head to the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole petallides is standing by and she is watching homebuilders for us. nicole. >> there is certainly a story within the story here. the first part the latest month was not such freight news. hovnanian to the downside. pulte group and lennar all doing very well. the latest month for the month ever decent december we saw a whole pullback for the month. we've seen the stocks soaring. a name like hovnanian which is down 12 cents today over the last six months alone is up 150%. let's talk about the median price of the average home. that has been gained over 13% in the year 2012 and it went from 218,000 and change up to 248,000 and change. so we've certainly seen the

homebuilders and obviously sales on the rise and helping the lackluster economy and turning this around. while december wasn't that great, year-over-year we're seeing stellar improvement. back to you. melissa: nicole, thanks so much. lori: federated investors, you heard of them, one of the country's largest asset managers. the company posting better than expected fourth quarter results. looming over fed rate and the mutual fund industry are looming regulations that my next gift says could kill parts of his business. in fox exclusive is federated invests ceo, chris donahue. >> thanks very much, lori. lori: a nice stock performance, 28% gain over last year. 8.5% year-to-date. will federated maintain this rate of growth? >> we certainly hope to and we're certainly set up to because we had a very, very strong performance in 2012 and equity and fixed income funds, reaching over 30 billion with six billion in ned additions to our sm.

and product line. and the performance associated with those fund is outstanding. so we've got about 24 different funds, that have three-year top quartile records. this sets the stage for excellent performance in 2013. lori: obviously renewed focus on wall street with the markets flirting, if you will with historic highs here. that has to be good for business as well? >> we've seen it be good for business, yes indeed. we've seen slight movements more towards stock here in the first three weeks of 2013, as some clients are apparently moving more into the equity side than the fixed income. but it is not a u-turn. it is a polite move in that direction. lori: i understand you at fed rated are able to charge higher fees, higher management fees now that conditions loosened up and conditions improved so much and your customers are accepting that? >> the higher fees are only on the product themselves. naturally an equity fund

commands a higher fee than the fixed income fund. not like we changed the fees. they stay the same on all the fund. we're certainly happy to see customers roll into equity products. lori: let's talk about regulation. you are on the record saying that the government has been standing over money market funds with the club since the 1970s trying to kill them and these three proposals by the sec are three forms of debt. very subtle? >> yes. by the way it was three items fsoc was coming up with. the sec had an idea coming up with very similar proposals last year and the majority, bipartisan majority of the sec commissioners would not support those ideas. so then they turned around and came out with fsoc and, because they changed the net asset value, put restrictions on redemptions, caused inordinant capital to be considered, that's what i did say, it would be death by hang, death by hanging death by poison and death by

bullet. lori: this is reaction to the reserve primary fund in 2008, the systemic risk, right, partly to blame for the entire credit crisis during that time period. so what's the right solution here? >> well the money market fund were not to blame for the credit problems. they were a victim of the problem and the situation that is not usually told is the story of the putnam fund, which at the same time roughly had big redemptions, 6 billion against a $12 billion fund, merged in with federated, had liquidity and had no problem. so our idea is to come up with some sort of voluntary gating which would basically give the directors the same rights that our foreign funds have and the same right that even a drug company has, to hit a pause mode on the distribution or movement of money market funds. lori: right. >> this would eliminate a run. eliminate first mover advantage. let every shareholder be treated the same and give you time to solve an impending problem.

lori: chris donahue of federated investors, ceo. thank you very much. we know mutual fund are so important to our financial structure because they are easily liquidated and easily accessible when you need cash. it is an important part of the industry. we'll follow-up. thank you again. >> thank you. melissa: fox news. liz macdonald is here with more and emac's bottom line. >> that's what we're hearing from sources at bloomberg. i've spoken with a number of sources inside bloomberg. high-level meetings inside bloomberg whether or not to acquire "the financial times". this would be a trophy prize for mayor mike bloomberg who owns 90% of bloomberg. essentially ft has 2.1 million readers for the first time. for the first time the digital readers outpaced and exceeded its print readers. essentially could they afford it? mike bloomberg personally is worth 25 billion. that company, bloomberg pulls in 7 billion.

ft is not for sale that pierson tells fox business. categorically denying that anyone is seeking a purchaser for "the ft". for the pierson side, this is coming up through a ceo. came up through the education ranks. pearson. he is talking to people over there, according to insiders pearson is becoming more of an education textbook company, right? that the newspaper, the newspaper business is getting chewed up by, eviscerated by the internet. bloomberg may --. lori: how did that work out for them? >> well, it was a rough digestion of that magazine. the magazine was really struggling. it almost went under. the way they did the redesign made a very dreary read and not an exciting read. business week is coming back. but the thing with whether or not how "the ft" would fit in with bloomberg is this. you would need to have "the ft" b a trophy and amenity to be able to sell more bloomberg terminals because

85% of the its profits are comes from leasing and selling the use of those terminals. that's the name of the game. so the other obstacle to do "the ft" being bought by bloomberg is essentially no control over the 50% of the economists that "the ft" does not own. obstacles there. there may be a sale of the financial tifls. times. there may be a sale in. we don't know. lori: another suitor. mack, thanks so much. i was trying to think that is not a stamp but how long will the post office keep raising prices? what you need to know before the weekend begins. melissa: grading geithner after four years in office. today the treasury secretary tim geithner's last day. how will history remember the point man on the bank bailout on the housing crisis? that's next. ♪ . twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations.

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>> good afternoon, i'm sandra smith with your fox business brief. it is a bullish day down on wall street as strong earnings from proctor & gamble trump a weak report on the u.s. housing market. the s&p 500 on track for its longest winning streak in more than eight years. deputy defense secretary ashton carter is saying that the pentagon has started laying off most of its 46,000 temporary and term employees in efforts to slow spending ahead of the nearly $50 billion in cuts set to go into effect march 1st.

carter also is asking military services to provide detailed plans by february 1st on where they can reduce short-term spending. >> at&t is buying spectrum from verizon wireless for $1.9 billion in cash. at&t says the licenses cover 42 million people in 18 states. that is the latest from the fox business network, giving you the power to prosper.

melissa: president obama called tim geithner one of the best u.s. treasury secretaries ever after four longs years and countless financial crises he is calling it quits. his tenure has been controversial. was he a better friend to big banks or the average joe? on his last day, jon hilsenrath, tim geithner's last day, he is "wall street journal" chief

economics correspondent. he joins me with a report card. what grade are you giving him? >> let's go subject by subject. melissa: that is better idea. >> the good grades first or the bad grades? melissa: let's start with the bank bailout. that is the thing he is the most remembered for. what grade would you give him for? >> that is where i'm going to give him a good grade. this is the part of the crisis response perhaps most controversial. so many people say it was a bad thing to do. i give him an a. our financial system was on the brink of collapse. melissa: i think you give him an a minus? is there a little grade inflation here in the middle of the segment? >> i will give him a. the minus was took some of that money and lost it bailing out gm. if you look at the banks, they stablized the financial system. they made money on those invests. we're in a bad place and they helped us steer us out of it. you have to give credit where they credit is due. melissa: a folks at lehman

have a lot of bitter people and why they were let go. >> it was certainly arbitrary. i'm talking about the way they used tarp money. melissa: they staved off disaster. i was teasing. fannie mae reform and the whole housing sector which was a huge part of the reason we saw the crisis. >> they got the banking sector back on its feet. they haven't done anything with fannie mae or freddie mac since bailing them out. they get an "f" on that. geithner really moved nowhere on trying to reconfigure our mortgage finance system. and they have had a lot of problems trying to push through their own efforts, for instance, to get people out of underwater mortgages or, get more refinancing done. they get an "f" on that particularly because they haven't even tried to put forward a plan that would reform fannie mae and freddie mac. melissa: like sheer exhaustion. >> by the way, fannie and freddie have been huge money losers for the government. melissa: talk to me about the debt ceiling debate. i feel like he haven't even

really a part of that. >> he get as d there and i'll tell you why. the treasury's responsibility really is to have a contingency plan. this is a guy who steered the economy through all of these financial crisis. you know, you ought to have some kind of plan in place for dealing with the moment when we might hit the debt crisis. an inspector general looked at this last year and discovered that the treasury never put in place a contingency plan for, you know, what would happen if congress never got around to raising the debt ceiling. melissa: yeah. >> for lack of planning, they get a low-grade on that one. melissa: you give them a d. >> yeah. melissa: what do you think he will do next? if it were me after six-month vacation in the bahamas then i would start thinking what i want to do. >> i think he might need more than six months in the bahamas. melissa: it has been a tough run. >> it is interesting. he did an interview with "politico" today and ruled out taking the top job at

the fed. i thought he was potentially janet yellen's biggest competition for that job because obama clearly feels very loyal to the guy. so --. melissa: interesting. >> if geithner wanted to be fed chief i would think he would have a chance at it. the fact he said he is not in the running for that, who knows he could change his mind. i think that makes it likely janet yellen, the vice-chair woman of the fed, could get that job when bernanke leaves in january 2014. where that puts bernanke, where that puts geithner, maybe he will make a turn in the private sector. i don't think he goes to a big bank. that would be a horrible publicity move. there are lots of other smaller investment fund he could be looking around for. a lot of these guys also, i know a lot of people who left the fed have gone out on the speaking circuit and done a lot of private consulting which is very lucrative. melissa: very lucrative along with a unaboutp of books. i betcha he goes that route for a while. john, thanks so much.

>> thank you. lori: that was fun. melissa: he is great. lori: he is indeed. let's go ahead and check the markets. time to see what nicole is keeping her eye on of course joining us from the floor of the stock exchange. >> i'm looking at toy makers. hasbro in particular is the one with headlines today. down nearly 3%, taking mattel down with it down 1 1/2% from mattel. hasbro will have to cut 550 workers, 10% of the workforce because the holiday sales were not as good as they had anticipated. so with this job cuts, and also the warning of these disappointing results obviously doesn't bode well for the future earnings and revenue of the company. think make playskool, nerf, littlest pet shop, monopoly just to name a few. obviously the toy biz is under pressure. lori: can't believe you listed them like a laundry list, all those games. melissa: all right, starting on sunday you will need another penny to send a letter to grandma. lori: she does not have e-mail. melissa: that's right. the price of a first-class

stamp rising by a penny to 46 cents now. so hard to keep track. postcard rising to 33 cents. with this jump the cost of sending a letter increased by 12 cents since 2001. that is more than a 35% increase. of course the hike comes as the postal service faces insolvency. the agency could go over its own fiscal cliff this spring as it teeters on the edge of bankruptcy. they keep raising another penny. people aren't using it anyway. >> if you have a forever stamp you don't need to add that penny in. melissa: that is all you care about. you have a sheet of forever stamps. lori: i've been hoarding them. since you covered the post office last year i don't trust it. melissa: i haven't made improvements. private equity workout is still the answer. lori: debt chreblgtores taking to social media posing as facebook friends. government not having it. melissa: i scream, you

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lori: warning. debt collectors are venturing into social media as a new way to find customers but the government may be putting their foot down. shibani joshi has details on this this is really a pandora's box. a whole new way to investigate people who are indebted and gin up new

business as well. >> they're already so pesky calling your home or receiving you there mail or other forms, outreach methods. now they're getting more pesky because they're getting into facebook and twitter and your other social media forms. you can't say they're pesky because they're just doing their jobs but it is a big business, the debt collection business. in fact the consumer financial protection bureau estimates that 30 million americans are being pursued to collect $12 billion in debts. as a result the debt collectors are working really, really hard to get their money back. they have been using the phone. they have been using mail. now they're starting to use social media and the web. as of this month the cfpb has initiated new rules to rein in these debt collectors. now borrowers out there will be able to learn about any legal actions, any tame or aggressive behavior you can easily report but it is very murky what the rules are on the web and they're taking advantage of it. we're getting more and more reports of people getting

harassed and their friends. lori: what can you do to protect yourself? >> obviously if you don't know somebody, and they try to friend you, don't accept their friend request. that is the best way to stave it off. if there are debt collectors you can report it the same way you do with aggressive phone call or any other method. you can alert the ftc. you can submit a complaint to the cfpb. you can do that online or over the phone. there is the full screen with the details. they're getting creative because --. lori: it is so easy. everybody is out there. >> one out of every 10 americans has some sort of a debt that is outstanding. it is a pervasive issue. lori: thank you, shibani. news you can use. melissa: there you go. even in cold weather like this everybody loves ice cream. yes. lori: no way. frigid. painful. melissa: well americans don't love it the most. sound like lori. according to new information from unilever the top ice cream eaters live in, i believe it, new zealand. lori: that makes sense.

melissa: it does? lori: isn't it warmer there? melissa: i don't think so. each kiwi consumes seven and a half gallons a year. seven and a half gallons. lori: their seasons are reversed. melissa: we are close second with americans eating on average five 1/2 gallons each year. no way i ate five 1/2 gallons last year. >> just last week. melissa: our neighbors across the pond round out the top 10 list with brits average less than 2 1/2 gallons. did you eat five 1/2 gallons ice cream? melissa:. lori: sure. melissa: five 1/2 gallons? you know what that is. lori: we've got to go. we have to go on and on. we're busting the clock. coming up nasa spends millions to launch an inflatable space lab made by bigelow aerospace. the company's founder joins tracy and ash next on fox business. this is $100,000.

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ashley: good morning, ashley webster. tracy: i'm tracy byrnes. dow and s&p are heading for their fourth straight winning week. the s&p hasn't been up this many days since president bush won re-election way back in 2004. we have the biggest movers ahead. ashley: meantime european banks are fighting back. they're about to repay hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency loans sending the euro to a 11-month high. currency investor axle merck says the euro could be the rock star this year. he is here to explain. tracy: this blowup capsule the future of space? you heard it about had here first last week. the head of the company that makes nasa's new experiment will tell us how the thing works. and how it is expandable as to inflatable. ashley: there is your space lab right there.

tracy: but it is top of the hour. time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the exchange. >> all right. good way to kick off the hour. let's just get to the markets. i think we'll save ourselves. let's take a look here at the dow, the nasdaq and the s&p. as we noted we've been sitting here at five-year highs and not too far off all-time highs. look at dow industrials. 13,881. you are. our high of the day was 13,887. these are the highest levels we've seen in five years. of course our all-time high, there it is right on cue, closing high, 14,164 and change. we're not too far off that, right? 282 points away. let's look at names on the move. start with proctor & gamble out with earnings. you can see the stock is up 3.6%. microsoft is also doing better now. they did do well with windows, up 1% there for microsoft. when you look at these two names, both of which are dow components of course, as we

are sitting up 56 points to the upside. it is nice to see we're approaching the end of the day and still holding onto some good gains. back to you. tracy: thanks, nicole. we'll see you in 15 minutes. ashley: as we said the s&p 500 is hovering near a five-year high and the dow edging towards 14,000, almost there so is this a breakout or are we due for a pull back? depends who you talk to. we'll talk to milton mess rought at this, senior economist with lord abbett. milton, people wonder where the resistance level is when you look at the s&p. maybe we've already blown through it. what are the pivot points for you on the s&p? >> i think the s&p, still after these gains, shows excellent value. from our point of view, fundamentally this market has a great deal of up cede. the competition from bonds isn't there. any kind of a risk-off trade whether you're talking about cash or treasurys offers

nothing. in fact after inflation it has a negative return. equities offer very good value. unless you throw a curveball, it is likely to continue to rise. never goes in a straight line but we see a lot of upside. tracy: the curveball i suppose would be if the liquidity stops being pumped, right? we know at this point there is no talk of it stopping anytime soon. as long as we continue to do that, market goes up. keep uncertainty in washington. unemployment kind of stays high. how eventually do you bring that all together? >> well i think the issue is, the market can and it will take a while, catch up to the value it has, and then we're going to need some real progress in washington. we'll need federal reserve to unwinding its situations so that people aren't threatened by this liquidity issue. we'll need a lot of fundamental change. but right now, the value carries things forward. not suggesting that washington or europe can't throw a curveball into this

but the value right now is the ultimate consideration and it will probably carry the market for at least 12 to 24 months. ashley: you say one of the ways to make money is get into risk assets with staying power so what are we talking about? >> mostly equities. that's where the greatest value is. and that is where the staying power is. we've made the easy money in junk bonds. we've made the easy money in other bonds. in fact there's a risk in treasurys and high-grade corporates of actual losses. it is in equities in the united states in particular. tracy: and in that equities market, consumer discretionary in particular i know is on your list. we have a few people saying that yet we're not seeing the consumer spending that everybody is anticipating. >> we're not seeing a lot of consumer spending but the issue here again, as long as the consumer continues to increase spending, even if it is subpar mediocre rate the valuations implicitly

are forecasting a decline in spending or a halt in spending. so on that basis even mediocre consumer behavior comes as a reef leave to the market. it can move up. we've seen that through 2012 and the early weeks of the year. we think this can persist for quite some time. ashley: we're seeing mostly encouraging data in the housing sector although you think the recovery is slower than perhaps some people are saying based on the statistics. huy much will that drag on the overall recovery if this housing recovery really is going to be painful fully slow? >> i think this is why this will remain a subpar recovery growing forward, just one of them. this is important to put this in perspective. we think the numbers we saw at the end of 2012 overstate the strength in housing but even a modest increase is vast improvement over the free-fall that dominated 2010, 11 and early 2012. ashley: good stuff. but house prices are moving

up which is a good sign. milton mess rought at this with lord abbett. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. tracy: big-time. that's something. ashley: yeah. tracy: president obama and his nominee for secretary of state, senator john kerry made it very clear that climate change will be a top priority. what policies could come from this? rich edson in washington, d.c. with the latest. everyone hears climate change they think solyndra. >> a number about different policies, tracy. the president's second term arriving with consequential digses on carbon emission standards and whether to allow the construction of a pipeline from canada to texas. the president explicit comments on climate change, his pick, secretary of state john kerry offer ad strong defense of energy policies in his confirmation hearing. one analyst said the administration pursued the green energy agenda in the

first term. how green it will be in the second? he says we may find out next month. >> if the inaugural address was merely a tip of the hat to environmentalists that are long suffering then the state of the union could begin a trend that would indeed suggest this administration will change its dance and maybe press the green button over at epa that fires off a fuselage of new regulations. >> if confirmed, secretary of state john kerry could decide the future of the keystone pipeline. a spokesperson said that officials will not make a decision by the end of the first quarter for this year to allow or deny that approval for the keystone pipeline. back to you. tracy: hits keep coming. rich edson, thank you very much have. i'm sure bundles of regulation. ashley: all green. i think of green, money going down the drain but hey. it is $114 billion question that is plaguing u.s. banks. we'll have the details on that next. tracy: plus nasa spending millions on an inflatable, or expandable space lab

build by bigelow aerospace. the company's founder, robert bigelow is here. so cool. first as we do every day at this time of day, let's look how oil is trading. pretty much flat. $96 a barrel. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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tracy: it is tile to make some money with charles payne. we can't stop talking about this mattress, can't we? we're talking about empty addresses again -- mattresses. you said yesterday it would go really, really high or really, really low. >> but i did recommend it. it was so funny when i got back up stairs we got a flood of phone calls and e-mails. people are like, should i buy the stock. tracy: talking about tempur-pedic. >> tempur-pedic. what i was trying to illustrate i like idea of going into earnings it was high-risk.

at one point it was up huge. maybe one of the top percentage winners. at one point it was up 17%. but here's the thing. let's go to one of their rivals, select comfort. ashley: okay. >> they reported. all-time record sales but the bottom line wasn't that good. let's take a look where select comfort is. that was sort of warning i was giving yesterday. in other words a lot of people if you want to buy some of these ideas, people can't take that kind of a hit. often if you want a big giant reward on these kind of ideas if you're not prepared to take a stock down five bucks you can't just think i will buy it. tracy: is it a play? because these are not cheap albeit very hard pat tresses. ashley: they're not hard mattresses. you sink into them. they are great. >> i was up big in the after-market i was thrilled. i told clients to buy it. we took profits on half at the even and hold other half even though shorts are trying to knock it down. it is about execution. this is what this whole game is about. it is kind of crazy.

when you see one company reports all-time record sales but the bottom line was bad. they missed by 10 cents. that's huge. whereas, you know what? tempur-pedic didn't have high expectations. they had high shorts and right now --. ashley: bar was low a little bit. >> the bar was much lower. i have to tell youing something that is happening last four weeks. stocks with high short interest are getting hammered. the shorts are heading back to the hills. a lot of with the herbalife. feels like the short who normally have it their way are getting hammered these days. if you're in a stock with a big short position you don't have to beat by a large margin. right now they're getting hammered. the short squeezes are happening. this is mostly a short squeeze. tracy: my advice to children every way, do not get into a fight with tempur-pedic pillow. you will have permanent brain damage. ashley: they're not a brick. they are very comfortable. >> i have to go --. tracy: eat your wheaties before you pick up the pillows. that's all i got to say. ashley: they are heavy,

that's true. thank you, charles. >> see you later. ashley: there is a new mystery plaguing the country's biggest banks. in the first week of the year more than $100 billion was withdrawn from the 25 largest u.s. banks. this is according to the latest data from the fed. there hasn't been an outflow that large since the september 11th attacks. the question no one seems to be able to answer is why? hmmm? tracy: crazy, right? >> what did you do with the money, ashley. ashley: well, okay i have a swiss bank account. tracy: bought tempur-pedic. [laughter] ashley: didn't get much change, either. >> hell of a bet though. that is a bet. it is everything. tracy: there is cause for concern. it is quite a bit of money. >> since 9/11. we know why they took it out at 9/11. is that smart money? ashley: my five bucks. tracy: maybe transparency. ashley: yeah. >> see you guys later. tracy: let us know how the mattress shopping goes. every 15 minutes we check on

the markets. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. nicole, you're looking at apple now, huh? >> i am indeed because we watched apple soaring going to 700 and down to 500 and hoping that it could hold the $500 line. here it is. 444, down $6 right now. down 1.4%. obviously apple has been pummeled. this is a new 52-week low again here for apple as they give an outlook. their demand has been weaker no doubt, despite the fact they have had record sales. the reason exxon is on there, because apple had surpassed easily exxon as the largest market capitalization here in the u.s. of a publicly-traded company but with the losses that we have seen here over the last month or so, and now sitting at 444, it has dropped down that to that number two spot. right now apple is down six bucks. back to you. tracy: nicole, we'll see you

in 15 minutes. cold one week, warm the next. it is wreaking havoc on energy prices. jeff flock is live from the cme coming up. ashley: a tale of two currencies. axle merck will weigh in on what looks to be a solid year for the euro but a dismal year for the yen. look at euro. that is very close to the 11-month high against the u.s. dollar. but the pound also recovering a little bit. u.k. economy is not doing so great. we'll be right back.

>> at 20 minutes past the hour i'm rick folbaum with your fox news minute. a federal appeals court ruled president obama violated constitution when he bypassed the senate and used recess powers to fill vacancies on the national labor relations board. the d.c. circuit ruled the senate didn't have the power since the senate wasn't in recess january of last year. the white house says it respectfully but strongly disagrees with the court ruling. two term republican senator, saxby chambliss will not run for re-election in 2014. he was a mem besh of the

bipartisan gang of eight working forea deficit deal. he was targeted by the tea party because he was considering raising taxes. they must provide sports for disable students much like title iv expanded opportunities for girl students, students with disabilities must be provided access to extracurricular sports. back to tracy and ashley. tracy: rick folbaum, thanks very much. honeywell beat the street with its latest quarterlyly report. sandra smith has the trade. >> halliburton getting a boost in today's session. when you think halliburton you think fracking. but they saw weakness in north america. that led to a drop of about 26% for their quarterly profit because they beat expectations. the stock is really off to the races today. by the way look at the shares just under 40 bucks. the average analyst has a overweight rating with a $43

billion price target. many see as a good buy at these levels even following that report. as far as manufacturing is concerned look at honeywell. look at this steady eddie chart. year-to-date the stock has been strong, nearly $70 a share. right now the average price target is 72 with an overweight rating. analysts really like the stock. they beat on expectations but the really interesting comments from the company's ceo on the call following earnings, david cote saying they're very uncertain where the economy is going. he has been a very vocal corporate voice on some nervousness about washington and the rising debt situation. so that sort of has the stock a little bit flat because all the investors were like, what does that mean for your company? so even though they did beat expectations they're still a little bit of nervousness in that stock. halliburton certainly one of the big winners. ashley: yeah, impressive. tracy: you said steady eddie. >> steady eddie. ashley: that's great. technical term. tracy: like i say jim-dandy.

i love it. ashley: whoever jim is. the euro is rallying against the dollar. it is steady eddie off the european central bank, said banks will pay back about $184 billion in three-year emergency loans. that's more than the analysts expected by the way. so will the euro be the rock star currency of 2013? joining me now is axel merk, chief investment officer of merk investments. before we get the currency, axle, we talked about a major amount of money in the u.s., 100 billion in the first week of this year. it is a bit of a mystery, but you have a theory. >> just tweeted the explanation if you want to look that up. basically one. crisis measures is expiring fdic gave unlimited insurance to any noninterest bearing accounts. that guaranty is gone now. so people are taking their money elsewhere. as simple as that. there is no big mystery

behind it. ashley: no big mystery. >> talking about a hundreds of billions here and talking about the euro, as you mentioned, almost $200 billion euros being paid back. that is the equivalent of mopping up liquidity. in the u.s. we're printing a trillion a year. in the eurozone they're mopping up liquidity. and that alone has to give the euro a boost. we'll see much more of that later this year and, in the eurozone, the way they give stimulus is by tighten the spreads. having the periphery pay less and the market does their job. higher interest rates on the short end of the yield curve and higher interest rates money being paid back. getting rewarded in the eurozone where you get punished in the u.s., japan and elsewhere. ashley: that's right. don't you think investors are still a little wary of euro even though it is performing better now as the ecb tightens up its policy? we haven't seen many dire headlines out of europe

recently but they could always come back. >> of course. that is why it is not too late to buy the euro. if everybody loved the euro it would be far beyond that i'm not suggesting that things are good in eurozone or good perfect in the eurozone. but euro is destined to be prosperous. if you know where policymakers are heading is a good thing. don't fool yourself. we don't have good process in the u.s., u.k. or japan. doesn't mean all the currencies are in shambles at least not yet. in eurozone they were really bad but now they're less bad. euro has a lot to do to catch up. a lot of guys are printing money except the ecb. that means the euro is destinned to go higher. ashley: less bad. that is good way of putting it. the yen, you say historically the more dysfunctional japan has been the stronger the yen has been but what is going on now? >> certainly in japan historically current account surplus. that means they don't need

foreigners to buy the yen the less the government gets done the less money they can spend, the less pressure they can exert. now they have a new government. incidentally their trade balance is deteriorating. deficits will mooter going forward. importantly aside from the new inflation target and all the things that have been announced in the springtime three top people of the bank of japan are going to retire. the new government with a 2/3 majority will put in place not those doves. they will be hawks that act dovishly. they have not been printing money. that is all going to change. they will play catch-up. the yen will weaken. you will get much more on the downside the policymakers are wishing for. ashley: someone pointed that out this week in davos. german chancellor, angela merkel was pointing to japan because she was concerned about the currency war. seems to me that everybody has been in this race to debase their currency so why pick on japan? >> well, got to pick on somebody. got to play politics to the

domestic audience the japanese counted right away. germans have nothing to complain about because the periphery in the eurozone makes the euro much cheaper. i would say no, the europeans are not printing more money despite their reputation. japanese historically have not printed money and starting now. europeans did not print as much as europeans or the brits did. the brits, americans, japanese are printing krik crazy. the europeans will be the main bish i are. the euro will go through the roof on that. ashley: we're already seeing it today. axel merk, thanks so much. we appreciate you joining us. >> thank you. ashley: the euro is the rock star. tracy: japan will catch up. nasa set to launch an inflatable space capsule. is this the future of living in space? we can only hope. we'll ask the head of the company that makes that. ashley: looking forward to that interview. let's look at some of the winners and losers as the dow solidly higher up 50

points thereabouts. netflix doing well. priceline.com also up 5% today as we move towards the last trading day of the week. we'll be right back. what's next?

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tracy: half past the hour. let's take a look at the dow 30. caterpillar is your dow 30 loser right now. ashley: let's head down to the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole petallides by. nicole: take a look at this

market. clearly, five-year highs. >> it will be most psychological and investor minds. what we have been doing is struggling with 1500. i would not be surprised if it ran out of steam again. it does need to pull back a little bit just to build some foundation. eugene on. do you beat the market to kind of common a little bit. i am bullish this year. the market could provide some volatility. you have to pay attention. nicole: any sectors that you are hot on? >> i like financials.

i do like names like caterpillar and industrials. names like that will come into real vote. nicole: that is the latest. back to you. tracy: we will see you in 15 minutes. one thing to go into the family business, but in entirely another to make it into one of the fastest growing conglomerate. it is straight from india. liz claman landed a one-on-one with the chairman for that company. if you have not heard about it yet, you will soon. liz: talks about a proxy for world business. 110 different businesses in 100 different companies. are you optimistic or pessimistic about business in 2013? >> i think i am an optimist. more so than i have ever been

before, and back. i find myself in the position where i am more optimistic than i was. liz: why? what do you see out there right now? >> just a short couple of months ago, there was no business of gathering where the first topic on the table would not be grief. who is next? spain, italy? the second topic that was almost a doomsday scenario was the u.s. invading iran. those topics do not exist on the table. we need to acknowledge when things have changed. iran is not a topic. something good must have happened there. then, the world changes like that and you have to get optimistic. liz: deals are struck here in davos.

>> i would not say deals are struck here because you need your normal contingent of legal people around you. liz: the seeds are planted. sparks are ignited. >> they are greatly exaggerated. liz: interesting. rick goings of tupperware was very strong in his wording. he brought up something that happened in your country about violence against women. the indian bus rape and murder of that one lady was really something that crystallized and captured the attention of the world. as you look at that, you think that those are also, the discussions that we should be having in davos? >> when i read about that

thought it was horrible. our it company, in fact, came up with a mobile app to fight back. it is an alert signal. any woman that feels she is danger, she can just press a simple button to alert people around her. we are trying to do more things like that. liz: you are a husband, you are a father to two daughters. you are a feminist in many ways. >> my mother was a feminist. she wrote a book called "the rebellious homemaker." liz: thank you very much for speaking with us. >> always a pleasure. liz: it is because of conversation that are very valuable that we bring our business leaders to ideas. back to you in new york. ashley: that was liz claman.

coming up in the next hour, by the way, liz claman will go with dow chemical chief. plus, the purple interview with microsoft cofounder, bill gates. that is all coming up on the fox business network. do not miss it. tracy: snow and ice covering much of the nation. it is causing big moves in the energy market. ashley: let's take a look at the ten and 30 year treasuries. we will be right back. ♪ i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations. i need to rethink the core of my portfolio. what i really need is sleep. introducing the ishares core, building blocks for the heart of your portfolio. find out why 9 out of 10 large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes

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♪ >> i am shibani joshi with your fox business brief. it is a bullish day on wall street. the s&p on track with its longest winning streak in more than eight years. the dow is higher by more than 60 points. the childcare provider losing $22 billion in its initial public offering. bright horizons was traded on the nasdaq until 2008 when it was taken private by bain capital. the country is currently listed on the new york stock exchange. a distant dream for many older americans -- retirement.

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ashley: olio closing for the day down seven cents. for the week, oil actually up $0.32. the seventh winning week, the longest streak since early 2009. tracy: i would like to be happy about that, that i am not going to be. and messy winter storm. high wind is still hitting the midwest. tell it to go away. >> it will not be that bad. there is some snow going in the

jersey direction, but it is all pretty light in nature. it will be in inch max. the heaviest of precipitation has been down here across parts of the appellations. eastern parts of kentucky and eastern parts of tennessee. maybe a half an inch of ice. we have seen that already. take a look at your tropical forecast. we will put the radar into motion of what we think it will look like over the next 24 hours or so. parts of south carolina seeing some of that rain. the rain falls and it freezes once it hits the ground. we will see some snow moving towards d.c. in the new york city area. temperatures remain cold all through the weekend. monday and tuesday, temperatures will be back in the 40s and

50s. temporarily, but at least temporarily. tracy: we will totally take it. look at that sunshine. thank you. ashley: those freezing temperatures are also having an affect on natural gas prices. more volatility is expected. jeff flock is that the cme with the story. jeff: money was made earlier in the week on whether. we listened very carefully to that forecast. you say that this rally is done on that. >> well, you know, the belief was that less than a month ago, you would continue to see that cold spell continue. that is why matt cassel had such a bid. jeff: we look at the one week. obviously, you see the volatility. if you look at the five year, it

was $11. >> yes. for the same reason, the belief is that the cold front is probably beyond us. jeff: you are bearish, short term. we talked to a letter traders that are a little more bullish. take a look at these. u.s. natural gas. one that actually trades. the guys that do the pipes and all the rest. somebody told me today also clean energy fuel. those are the guys that are building out the fuel stations for the big wheeler trucks. >> right. that is where the infrastructure comes in. because of the surplus here in the u.s., without supply it is

rather in demand. jeff: that is the way to go, if you like natural gas. >> is going to warm up, though. ashley: jeff flock at the cme. thank you very much. tracy: it is quarter till. time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange. nicole: let's take a look at what is going on here with starbucks. as you noted, tracy, they did very well in the u.s. they also did well abroad. asia gave good numbers for starbucks. another thing they noted is higher traffic. we should note that the new single cup coffee maker did not quite take off as they had anticipated.

recently, when i was in starbucks, i thought this comment already. same-store sales on the side. back to you. ashley: as we have been talking about it, the hotel mobile who is not designing self inflating or expanding liver quarters for outer space. he will tell us about his new project with nasa. tracy: as we head out to break, the dow is up 60 points. take a look at them your winners and losers on the nasdaq. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ [ slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium-rich tums starts working so fast

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ashley: al gore going on to her. hitting the circuit just weeks after his controversial sale. dennis kneale has more on this story. dennis: the question some people are asking today is al gore just a big fat hypocrite? he hates oil and natural gas drilling. he just personally pocketed $110 in that field. now al gore has a book out and he is going on tv to promote it. it is titled "the future." 558 pages of wonky preaching

pros. forcing politicians to take money from big business. gore is going on letterman and nbc's today show on tuesday. he will meet with john stuart on wednesday. this could get a little awkward even the "new york times" took a shot at him. "ignited charges of hypocrisy and greed." we will see what the top trio asks on why gore agree to sell out. the beer of the cutter has donated $400 million to the terror group of hamas. our former president, the vice president, in his new book he calls it feisty and relatively independent.

feisty. so that is what that is. interesting. tracy: feisty. ashley: wonky pros in the book, huh? dennis: i am sure he will be giving half of it to the government. tracy: thank you, dennis. we have been talking about this all our. teaming up with nasa to create in expandable modules that will attach to the space station. joining us now. we love this story. tell us about it. >> it is an expandable system for habitation all use.

it is nasa's first experience on orbit. first experience using that type of thing. we have two previous launches that are still in space. low earth orbit. we have had some years of experience with these systems. we are very excited to be working with nasa and building this product for them. ashley: how does this work? i am envisioning a ripcord and it insulates. is that basically what you do in space? you set it up, secure it and then basically inflated? >> that is more or less the general concept. you must remember, expandable systems have been around for 100 years that are very common. you drove to work today on an expandable system. you have no dow been using them for decades. the tires on our cars are expandable systems.

they are very strong, very durable. that is a good run of four for the kind of spacecraft reliability that we are engineering. tracy: what makes it better? you know, we used to, i don't remember, what makes it better now as opposed to the old-school rocketship? >> there are several features that really are important. in fact, in almost any area that is important for life, the aluminum cans do not measure up. outside of lille, it is not desirable to be in an aluminum structure because of radiation affects. from a cost standpoint, on a single launch you can get three times the volume on launch. that saves a lot of money for rocket costs. also, our shield are superior.

in space, as you know, there is debris and media rights. our shield are able to defend against those impacts better than the aluminum cans can. it is not just punch a hole, it causes a split, if you will. we have done testing that establishes that in our plant. ashley: you say the ultimate plan is to make space stations cheap, efficient and available for rent. the rent in new york city is through the roof. i would say to the moon, but what would the rent be on something off in space. >> if somebody wants to, our the cost cost the lowest from spacex as a provider is $26 million. that is favorable. you must remember that nassau is paying $63 billion a seat right now the russians.

twenty-six is not too bad from that kind of context. especially if it is a large corporation or nation making that payment. we can lease two or three months of time for about $25 million. it would be a volume of the same size as the largest module on the international space station. that would be about 110 cubic meters. tracy: used to run motels. at a minimum, we know they will be comfortable. robert bigelow, thank you for taking the time to be with us today. >> my pleasure. thank you. cheryl: cheryl casone will take us through the next hour of trading. huh has two big interviews from davos. "countdown to the closing bell"

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